VMesh: Distributed Segment Storage for Peer-to-Peer Interactive Video Streaming

Abstract—Provisioning random access functions in peer-topeer on-demand video streaming is challenging, due to not only the asynchronous user interactivity but also the unpredictability of group dynamics. In this paper, we propose VMesh, a distributed peer-to-peer video-on-demand (VoD) streaming scheme which efficiently supports random seeking functionality. In VMesh, videos are divided into segments and stored at peers’ local storage in a distributed manner. An overlay mesh is built upon peers to support random forward/backward seek, pause and restart during playback. Our scheme takes advantage of the large aggregate storage capacity of peers to improve the segment supply so as to support efficient interactive commands in a scalable manner. Unlike previous work based on “cacheand-relay” mechanism, in our scheme, user interactivity such as random seeking performed by a peer does not break the connections between it and its children, and hence our scheme achieves better playbac...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: JSAC
• Authors: Wai-Pun Ken Yiu, Xing Jin, Shueng-Han Gary Chan
• Keywords: JSAC 2007, Random, Random Access Functions, User Interactivity